The Changing Role of a Rater

In the fall of 1995, I was the assistant project manager for Channen Construction, overseeing construction of the new Arizona Science Center for the city of Phoenix, when my friend Howard Bashford called to talk to me about a grant he’d just been awarded by EPA. Howard had been my professor and college advisor in the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University. The grant from EPA was one of four given nationally to jump-start the new Energy Star Certified Homes program. What I did not know 18 years ago was how much that phone call would change my life. Howard asked me to return to ASU as a graduate assistant to help him launch the Energy Star for Homes program in Arizona, and in January 1996 I left my well-paying job in the commercial construction industry for a job—focused on helping builders to make their homes more energy efficient—paying half the salary. How different our industry was back then!